Keto Coconut Cake (Healthy, Sugar-Free)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 05/08/2020 - Last updated on 11/25/2023
This recipe may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is the best Keto Coconut Cake recipe, a moist, soft, fluffy crumb with an intense coconut flavor, a creamy coconut frosting, and crispy toasted coconut on top.
Bonus, this coconut cake recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free! So keep reading to learn more.
Calling all the coconut lovers with this keto coconut cake recipe! I am a coconut fan, and I used to love fluffy, moist coconut cakes from the bakery with crunchy toasted coconut on top.
You know that feeling when you try something new, and the result is way beyond your expectations?
That is the story about this keto gluten-free coconut cake.
Let me explain how you can easily – yes, it’s a super easy keto coconut cake – make this recipe at home in less than 40 minutes. And if you love this recipe, you have to try my Coconut Flour Cake!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This coconut cake is an amazingly easy recipe:
- Ready in 45 minutes, baking included
- Healhty
- Keto-friendly
- Low-Carb
- Gluten-Free
- Refined-sugar-free
- Dairy-Free Base
- Paleo
- Nut-Free
How To Make Gluten-Free Coconut Cake With Coconut Flour
This low-carb coconut cake is dairy-free, made entirely with coconut products to provide the most intense coconut flavor.
Keto Coconut Cake Ingredients
These are the ingredients I chose to use in the recipe:
- Coconut flour – it’s one of the lowest-carb flour and the best to add a strong coconut flavor to a coconut cake. However, coconut flour is 4 times more absorbent than other flours, and that’s why you must measure this flour very carefully. Make sure your flour is fine, fresh, and with no lump. I recommend you work in grams for this recipe, or if you are using cups, make sure you heap the cup and level it before adding it to your mixing bowl.
- Eggs – large eggs at room temperature are required. If your eggs are too small, the cake will be very dry. Eggs are 100% keto-friendly.
- Full-fat canned coconut cream – This is the most important ingredient in this recipe for many reasons. First, it adds a delicious coconut flavor to this coconut cake. Then, the cream creates the best moist, fluffy crumb. That’s why you shouldn’t use low-fat coconut cream or coconut milk beverages. Finally, if you can’t find coconut cream, another option is heavy cream. It won’t add the fabulous coconut flavor from the coconut cream, but the cake texture will remain intact. Note that you can buy full-fat canned coconut cream in the Asian aisle of your supermarket. Check the ingredient list for no sugar added, and also remember that you must shake the can before measuring your cream as cream and milk split in the can.
- Coconut Extract – this enhances the keto coconut flavor. If you can’t find coconut extract without added sugar, simply use coconut stevia drops.
- Vanilla extract
- Baking powder
- Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut – or shredded coconut if you prefer big pieces of coconut into the cake crumbs. Make sure it’s unsweetened, as shredded coconut sometimes contains added sugar making it incompatible with sugar-free desserts.
Instructions
This is another easy keto cake recipe I am sharing with you.
All you have to do is to beat the eggs with cream, vanilla, coconut extract, and erythritol until light in color. Then, beat in the coconut flour until the cake batter is shiny and has no lumps.
I highly recommend using a beater to prevent lumps in the batter and to ensure a fluffy cake crumb.
Stir in the desiccated coconut at the end and bake your cake in a greased 9-inch cake pan until the top of the cake is golden and the center is set.
Baking
Coconut flour is highly liquid absorbent, and that is why coconut flour cakes may cook faster than regular wheat-based cakes.
For a moist coconut flour cake, I recommend you insert a skewer in the center of the cake after 20 minutes and keep checking every 5 minutes for 30 minutes.
Your cake is ready when a little to no crumb sticks on the skewer. Overbaking your coconut flour cake would make it very dry, so be careful about timing.
Also, always adjust the time based on your cake pan size. I am using a 9-inch pan and baking the cake for 25 minutes on fan mode at 350°F (180°C).
Adjusting Cake Baking Time
This cake will need more baking time if:
- Using a smaller cake pan, less than 9 inches in diameter.
- Baking on regular mode – usually, baking time will be closer to 30-35 minutes.
- Didn’t add enough coconut flour.
Coconut Cake Cream Cheese Frosting
While this low-carb coconut cake recipe is dairy-free, I prefer a cream cheese frosting. It adds a delicious creamy layer on top of the fluffy crumb, and you won’t regret it.
To make this keto cream cheese frosting, you need:
- Soft cream cheese – remove the cream cheese from the fridge for 1 hour before using it. If you cut the cream cheese into pieces, it is easier to beat in the next step.
- Full-fat coconut cream – same as above, let it warm up before using.
- Coconut extract
- Powdered erythritol – to sweeten the frosting.
Expert Tips
Avoiding Eggy Taste
Coconut flour cakes call for many eggs, and this is just how the recipe should be made! As I mentioned earlier, coconut flour is not like all other flour.
It has very special chemistry since it contains 4 times more fiber than regular flour. Fibers are water/liquid absorbent, and if they are not in contact with a liquid binding agent, they create crumbly, dry, and fragile cakes.
Therefore, a coconut flour cake requires lots of liquid, particularly eggs, to bind the flour and prevent the cake from having an unpleasant texture.
This said it’s not because this keto coconut cake uses 4 eggs that it tastes eggy at all! To cover a potential eggy taste in this low carb cake recipe, I am using:
- Good quality coconut extract and vanilla extract. I am talking about natural extracts, these are strong and intense and they add the best flavor to your cake. It would be very hard for the eggs to overpower the flavor of the natural extract.
- Coconut cream instead of heavy cream. Coconut cream is very flavorsome. It not only enhances the coconut flavor of your cake but also covers any eggy taste you don’t want in a keto cake.
- Eggs at room temperature. Yes, cold eggs enhance the eggy flavor of baking, so make sure you bring the eggs to room temperature before baking this healthy coconut cake. To do so, fill a bowl with lukewarm water and place the eggs in the bowl for 20 minutes or remove the eggs from the fridge 3 hours before baking the cake.
- Coconut frosting – the coconut frosting will be the extra coconut flavor on top of this cake that will absolutely cover any egg taste left in the cake, so don’t skip it!
Keeping The Cake Moist
Keto coconut recipes can be slightly tricky because of the high moisture absorbance of the flour. Here are my tricks to keeping cakes moist.
This is a moist gluten-free coconut cake recipe, and if you want to make sure your cake comes out as most as mine, you must:
- Use full-fat canned coconut cream or heavy cream but don’t use low-fat products, or the cake crumb will be dry.
- Measure the coconut flour precisely. To do so, ensure that your flour is fine, and fresh with no lumps. If you are using cups, don’t overly heap the flour in the cup and level the cup. Otherwise, use grams/oz for the best result. Note that old bags of coconut flour may have already absorbed some moisture and lost their properties – liquid absorption.
- Check baking time – see notes above about checking the baking time often to ensure the best baking time based on the oven, pan size, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, I wouldn’t recommend adding chocolate as it would change the texture.
If you want chocolate, try my Keto Chocolate Cake.
More Keto Cake Recipes
If you love keto cakes, I have many more for you!
Did You Like This Recipe?
Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!
Keto Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- 4 large Eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup Coconut Cream canned, full fat, shake the can before measuring, or use heavy cream
- ½ cup Granulated Sweetener like erythritol or allulose
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Pure Coconut Extract
- ¾ cup Coconut Flour fresh, no lumps, measure precisely
- ½ cup Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
Cream cheese frosting
- 4.4 oz Cream Cheese soft, at room temperature, cubed
- ¼ cup Powdered Erythritol
- ¼ cup Coconut Cream (Unsweetened) canned, full fat, shake the can before measuring, or use heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon Pure Coconut Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Grease a 9-inch cake pan with coconut oil or butter. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, using an electric beater on low/medium speed, beat the eggs with coconut cream, erythritol, coconut extract, and vanilla for 30-45 seconds or until slightly lighter in color.
- Beat in coconut flour and baking powder until the batter is shiny and has no lumps. Stop the beater and stir in the desiccated coconut.
- Transfer the coconut cake batter onto the prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
- Bake in center rack for 20-25 minutes on fan-mode or for 30-35 minutes or regular mode. I recommend you insert a pick in the center of the cake every 5 minutes from 20 minutes of baking. If it comes out clean or with a little bit of crumb, it's cooked! This is the best way to prevent a coconut flour cake from overbaking and getting dry (you want the crumb to be soft and moist!)
- Cool 5 minutes in the pan then transfer onto a cooling rack.
- Cool 1 hour on the rack, or wait until it reaches room temperature to frost. Only make the frosting 10 minutes before frosting the cake, or if you want to make the frosting ahead, don't store in the fridge, or it will get hard and difficult to spread.
Cream cheese frosting
- To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese with coconut cream, coconut extract, and powdered erythritol until fluffy. If too thick, add more coconut cream until it reaches a texture you love.
- Spread the icing on top of the cake and serve with extra toasted desiccated coconut.
Storage
- Store the cake in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze, in an airtight box.
- Defrost the cake on the counter.
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Yummy cake but I forgot to put sweetener in🤦♀️ but it was still ok.
How can I make this vegan?.
This cake won’t work vegan, you need eggs or the batter won’t hold even with egg replacer.
I made a HUGE keto mistake and bought the sweetened cream of coconut. I decreased the erythritol to a couple of tablespoons if that and followed the recipe as written. Baked for 20 mins exactly. So moist and flavorful. I need to get some unsweetened cream of coconut so I can make it again. Thanks for sharing. It’s a keeper!
I would like to sprinkle some dried cranberries on top of the iced cake to make it look more festive for Christmas. How can I make Keto-friendly dried cranberries? I have a dehydrator. Thank you in advance!
Most dried cranberries contains added sugar, maybe try dried freeze strawberries (my affiliate link here if you want to) or raspberries, these looks gorgeous and have no added sugar
I think raspberries to decorate is a great keto choice. Good for Christmas or Valentines Day.
Absolutely! Raspberries are keto friendly fruits, go for it!
I made this for the first time last week and I have to say I was amazed at how moist and light it was! I kept it in the fridge, half expecting it to go hard, but it didn’t – it stayed really light and spongy. Brilliant recipe!!
Thank you so much!
Hello! I an from the UK. When you say coconut cream in your recipe do you mean the solid part of the coconut without the milk in the can? Or is coconut cream the same as coconut milk? I don’t know which it is. If I use coconut milk for the icing will it make it too runny? Thank you
As mentioned in the recipe card, shake the can before opening to bring the liquid and cream together. Then, measure.
If I didn’t use the cream icing how many net carbs would be then? My husband doesn’t eat cream cheese, I thought maybe I could use egg whites whipped and put coconut sprinkled on top. How would I figure out what the net carbs would be with that instead of the cream cheese? Thanks for your help and your recipes
Excited to make this. I did notice that your recipe calls for cream cheese yet the description says dairy free.
Only the frosting have dairy but you can use my dairy free frosting instead from my keto vanilla cake recipe.
Can these be baked as cupcakes? if so, how do i adjust cooking time? Thanks!!
Yes sure, simply watch the baking time after 20 minutes, inserting a toothpick in the center of the cupcake. If it comes out dry it is ready to take out the oven
I’ve tried both almond flour cocolate cake and this coconut flour coconut cake and I have to say I love them both. I’m newly diagnosed with prediabete and I have been searching for easy, delicious recipes to satisfy my sweet tooth. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome recipes!
Hi Carine
I have just received my order of coconut extract which I bought from the manufacturer so I am itching to make my favourite coconut cake.
I enter all l my recipes into an app along with the url so that I can check for any tips or updates.
Today I checked on the metric conversion and found that the US 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence became 1 Tablespoon metric.
In Aus 1 Tbspn = 4 tspn (double!), in UK it’s 3 tspn. It makes me wonder what else might be wrong.
It’s another reason to use weights instead of volumes, especially as they can differ between countries.
It’s not such a problem for the vanilla flavouring but could be crucial if its something else, like coconut flour.
All my recipes are made using US measurement and US cups and tablespoons. If you are unsure, make the recipe using the weight measurement. Enjoy
Carine you didn’t read what I wrote.
Your metric conversion for the vanilla extract is wrong.
2 teaspoons US customary is NOT equal to 1 Tablespoon metric, whic is what yourcrecipe says.
Try it for yourself.
Do I have to manually check everything to check for the accuracy of your conversions?
Sorry for misunderstanding your question. I write all my recipes in US measurement, then the conversion is done automatically using a tool. We had an issue with the vanilla ingredient that is now fixed – I updated the quantity while doing the recipe a third time, but I forgot to re-convert the amount. However, don’t worry too much 2 teaspoons of 1 tablespoon of vanilla won’t impact the cake quality. Enjoy.
Thank you for responding Carine. I made the cake again this week and it was delicious. My favourite cake. I used your chocolate frosting with a tspn of coconut essence on top – fabulous!
Thanks again
Can I use almond flour? I don’t have any coconut flour on hand.
No, almond flour is four times less absorbent and the cake won’t hold with same amount of almond flour. But you can use my almond flour cake instead to use your almond flour.
Would it be possible to double the recipe for 2 9 inch cakes or should it be made in 2 separate batches?
Absolutely!
The first 2 times I made this cake it was absolutely perfect-moist and delicious. But the last 2 times the batter has been stiff even before I add the desiccated coconut, no amount of beating makes it glossy. It looks so dry. The latest attempt is in the oven now. The last one I made still tasted good but the texture was wrong.
Any tips?
If it works the first two times and now it’s dry it’s probably that you change the one of the ingredients you used before : different brand of coconut flour for example. Or you didn’t measure it the same way. Coconut flour contains 4 times more fibers than others flours and it’s highly liquid absorbent, amount matters. I hope it gets better next time.
Thanks Carine
I may have used a different brand of coconut flour. The cake turned out very dense, and not moist at all. Still tastes OK, but quite a disappointment.
I used this flour for your chocolate cake and it turned out alright, but also denser than expected.
Wish I could remember the brand so I could avoid it in future!
Cheers
GC
It may be how you measured. Weighting is best
How can I make this cake into a chocolate cake. How cacao powder should I add and will it affect the moist in the cake?
Thank you for the recipe I loved it and that’s why I want to make it into different flavors.
Simply follow my coconut flour chocolate recipe instead. Enjoy!
Hello! How many grams a slice?
I don’t provide weight per slice as it depends a lot on how you spread the icing and if you add it or not. Follow the pan size and cut into the same amount of recommended in the serving size.
Wow, this cake is moist, fluffy and delicious! Will be making this again!
Thank you !So glad you love it too! Carine
Hoping I can get some advice. The first time I made this cake, I tried to follow all the hints exactly. I carefully measured out 3/4 cup of fresh coconut flour that I bought from Nuts.com. I decided to weigh the flour on my kitchen scale to make sure I had not packed the measuring cups. I noticed that converting the recipe to metric allowed you the see the weight, which was supposed to be 90 grams. When I weighed my flour, it was only 67 grams… oh dear. I wasn’t sure what to do; ended up adding about 5 more grams. My cake came out to be very flavorful and moist but it stuck to the bottom of the pan badly and fell apart when I flipped it out. Any ideas?
It seems that you are missing coconut flour, if the metric says 90 g and you only used 67g you probably didn’t add enough in the cup.
Great cake. I added a spoonful of berries jam on top and it was perfect!
The cake was amazing. Would I be able to pipe the icing? Thanks!
Thank you! Yes, it should pipe just fine
Made this cake tonight. It was amazing! I’m wondering if I would be able to pipe flowers on it with your icing recipe or if this is more for spreading. Thank you!!!